


Hemolymph

by Tofutti



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Blood, Body Horror, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:28:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27632078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tofutti/pseuds/Tofutti
Summary: The Pale King's children were odd creatures, their filmy skin pulsating with some invisible heartbeat. Atop a ledge in Greenpath, Hornet wonders.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 37





	Hemolymph

Their tiny form shimmered, wavered where they stood, sickly and glinting. Hornet, despite how much time she spent at the Hollow Knight’s side, had never gotten used to her sire’s creations. 

_ Children _ , her mind reminded her,  _ your sire’s children _ , as if she were denying that they were her half-siblings. She wasn’t; she simply hesitated to call the Pale King father to anyone.

Their gaze found her where she watched from the overgrowth of Greenpath. Their eye sockets were dark. Expressionless. She may have spent years parsing the Hollow Knight’s barely expressed sentiments, but this one was a different vessel, a different being. She had no idea how to parse this one's thoughts.

They stared at her a moment more, still but for the constant rippling of their form. She could feel the pulse from her perch far above, uncanny, warm.  _ Time to move. _

As she darted away, leading another of Hallownest’s ghosts deeper into the verdant wastes of Greenpath, she recalled the feel of another vessel’s touch - warm, thick, tacky when she pulled away. It reminded her of hemolymph, the hemolymph that would spill across the blade of her needle. That didn’t make sense. No creature in Hallownest bled red.

Hornet threw her needle, flying above a bubbling lake of acid, and wondered - not for the first time, nor the last - what exactly her sire had done to create those strange, silent, pulsating children, children who smelled of metal and left her fingertips warm and uncomfortably sticky, children made of hemolymph that wasn’t hemolymph at all.

**Author's Note:**

> This is such a strange story. I don't know where I got this idea from. Interpret it as you will, there's definitely some interesting conclusions that can be drawn here.  
> For anyone who's interested: I've started working on Stain the Canvas again. New chapter soon-ish.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
